Progress - of sorts

I see that it is more than a week since I last blogged. I have decided that the wool and silk piece is a warm wrap so I have finished the ends tidily and washed and pressed it. If I decide to cut it up then no harm has been done. I have wound the warp of blue and brown worsted for the reversible tweed and have prepared for tying on to the ghost warp. I have also checked the threading - several crossed threads. Interesting my errors usually are crossed threads not mis-threadings.

 

 

Bookbinding has been done. Both volumes of Mallory are now finished and need the titles adding to the spine. This is not something I do myself. Gold leaf is all very well but my problem is getting the lettering straight. And I have got a long way with the mid-Victorian book for Chris Fletcher. I am hoping to have it finished in the next two weeks.

 

I have also been very brave. If you want to give the edges of a text block a nice flat surface, you can use a guillotine which is a very specialised tool and I have no access to one, or you can use a plow.  Now I do not like plows. My previous experience was that you were very lucky if the textblock  ended up without deep gouges. One copy of Sir Patrick Spens was put together very badly. It was the last of five and all the first four were fine. So I took a deep breathe and plowed the bad one - and it finished up looking good with no plowed gouges. Maybe I have improved!

 

I have been turning out the cellars. The problem with having a house with cellars and attics is that you keep everything on the grounds that it might come in handy some day. After 30 years, there is a lot of 'stuff' around and I have been clearing out. Yesterday I cleaned out one of the cellars and found a box containing about 500 large green plant labels. I swear I have never seen this before. Inside the house, there is a bag with white plant labels in it which is all I can ever recall using. So I put the green ones on the local freecycle website and it was collected by an enthusiastic lady this morning.  I do approve of that website. I have a garage full of 'stuff' now, some of it designated for the local hospice shop and some of it for the local tip.